On a typical day, Bearese woke up early, around 5:30 a.m., and got ready in the dark. Electricity was turned off between 1 and 7 a.m., he said. He showered using buckets before going to the school where he taught about 80 children for two hours. In a culture where parents arranged marriages for their children when they reached 11 or 12 years old and to women handling money was a new idea, Bearese planned a career day for his students to learn about opportunities and started an English club where students debated in their rudimentary English.

HAGERSTOWN — Tim Bearese, 24, lived without indoor plumbing for two years. His diet during that time consisted primarily of tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, rice and pasta.

By the end of his stint with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, a country in west Africa, Bearese was a little homesick for Hagerstown, he said.

Bearese, a 2001 graduate of North Hagerstown High School, studied Latin American history and Spanish at the University of Maryland, where he graduated in 2005. He then decided to try something new, and when the Peace Corps offered to send him to Africa and teach him French, Bearese jumped at the chance.

His primary job in the west African town where he lived was enrolling students in school, but he also taught English. Bearese was the only American within 300 miles, and to communicate, he had to learn not only French but also a couple of tribal languages used in the region, he said.

On a typical day, Bearese woke up early, around 5:30 a.m., and got ready in the dark. Electricity was turned off between 1 and 7 a.m., he said. He showered using buckets before going to the school where he taught about 80 children for two hours.

In a culture where parents arranged marriages for their children when they reached 11 or 12 years old and to women handling money was a new idea, Bearese planned a career day for his students to learn about opportunities and started an English club where students debated in their rudimentary English.

He also started a theater club for students who wanted to address social issues through skits and plays.

Bringing in new ideas was not looked favorably upon in the traditional culture Bearese was living in, he said.

Peace Corps volunteers do whatever the community they’re serving needs them to do, Bearese said. He taught a few computer classes and did computer repair in addition to his usual tasks, Bearese said.

Peace Corps volunteers benefit much more from their service than the people they serve, he said. He learned patience, and a whole new set of skills, Bearese said.

He is now staying in Hagerstown while interning at a human rights organization in Washington, D.C., twice a week. Eventually, Bearese wants to go into human rights law and he is applying to law school.

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Story Source: Hagerstown Morning Herald

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Burkina Faso

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